A plane carrying around 50 armed men has landed illegally in northern Central African Republic (CAR), the foreign minister has told the BBC. Jean Paul Ngoupande said the plane had arrived from Sudan and was suspected of being linked to the rebellion in Chad. Earlier this month, UN chief Kofi Annan said he was concerned that the fighting in Chad could further destabilise both Sudan's war-torn Darfur region and CAR. Mr Ngoupande said he was lodging a complaint with the African Union. Analysts say CAR is being used by Sudanese rebels as a crossing point to Chad. Tension is rising in Chad ahead of elections due next week. ... http://news.bbc.co.uk

U.S. forces killed a local al-Qaeda in Iraq leader and two other insurgents in a raid north of Baghdad on Friday, and roadside bombs killed an American soldier and an Iraqi policeman, officials said.Separately, the death toll in two days of fighting in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, climbed to 58, including seven Iraqi soldiers, Maj. Gen. Ahmed al-Awad said.U.S. forces, acting on Iraqi intelligence, raided a house where Hamid al-Takhi, the local al-Qaeda in Iraq leader, and the two other insurgents were hiding just outside Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, the U.S. military said.Al-Takhi, known as the "emir" of Samarra, was gunned down while fleeing the house, and the other two militants were killed while trying to defend it with grenades, the U.S. military said. After they were killed, the U.S. troops found a car parked nearby containing a grenade launcher, rockets, AK-47s, grenades and a shotgun, the U.S. military said....http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2006-04-28-iraq-violence_x.htm

Japan's Cabinet has approved a bill that will encourage teachers to instil patriotism and respect for tradition in their students. The bill, which will now be submitted to parliament, would change the country's education law for the first time since its enactment in 1947. Opponents fear the changes could engender dangerous nationalism. Meanwhile, a number of ruling party MPs have visited a controversial war shrine despite Chinese and Korean protests. The education bill is likely to further inflame tensions between Japan and its neighbours, who believe the leadership of their wartime enemy is shifting to the right. The BBC's Tokyo correspondent Chris Hogg says the bill has already sparked fierce debate within Japan. ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4953204.stm

Iran has ignored the 30-day deadline set by the UN security council to stop its uranium enrichment programme, the UN nuclear watchdog ruled today.As expected, Dr Mohammed ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), delivered a negative verdict on Tehran's nuclear programme.The report said Iran had done little during a 30-day grace period to answer a series of questions about its programme that could determine whether it was solely for civilian purposes. It said IAEA tests confirmed Iran's claims earlier this month to have enriched uranium with a cascade of 164 centrifuges to the low level needed to create nuclear energy. A much higher level of enrichment is needed to create atomic weapons. The IAEA report was being sent to the security council....http://www.guardian.co.uk/iran/story/0,,1763965,00.html?gusrc=rss

The scrubby grasslands of northeast Kenya have all but turned to dust. The nomads, who move from place to place to find water and food for their precious cattle, have given up looking for green pastures. The land is dead. It has killed whole herds of cows, and even camels seem to be dying. The nomads understand that when the cattle die, it's only a matter of time before people die. It's already happening in the most severely affected places. The Horn of Africa is facing its worst drought in two decades, and nearly 6 million people in Ethiopia, Somalia, Djibouti and Kenya are at risk of dying. In recent days the much-anticipated seasonal rains have arrived in some parts of the region, but it's not nearly enough and in many places the sudden rains have led to flash flooding. ...http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=1750996&page=1&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312

Newspapers need to find more allies in their fight to get access to public records, since government agencies keep coming up with more ways to keep them secret, a panel of news executives said Thursday. Decisions to classify government documents rose to roughly 15 million in 2004, the most recent year available, up from about 8 million in 2001, said Andrew Alexander, Cox Newspapers' bureau chief in Washington, D.C., and chairman of the American Society of Newspaper Editors' Freedom of Information Committee. At the same time, the government has been denying a growing number of public records requests. "The Freedom of Information Act seems to be in the throes of a mid-life crisis," Alexander said. ...http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1899855